Thursday, July 8, 2010

Back to therapy.

First, because I'm never going to get to the blog post about how much fun Sabrina had at the fair, I'll just include a picture to show you how super cute she was in the petting zoo.

(And I'll refrain from telling you the story about the goat that put his head up my dress.)

Ah, isn't she so stinking cute? Really, I know I'm a little biased, but who doesn't see it?

And my cutie patootie is returning to the land of Early Intervention. This time for speech therapy. Le sigh.

I've known for a long time she was delayed verbally but hoped she would have that so-called language explosion right around 18-20 months. She didn't. She has about 20 words total, doesn't put any together, and more concerning she doesn't imitate sounds or words or actions. She's getting frustrated with not being able to communicate because she really is a super social child...who can't socialize verbally. She starts pre-school in November and the last thing I want is for her to not be able to play with other kids because she can't communicate.

So I made the call. Because she graduated from her physical therapy, we had to start the process over with Early Intervention. But we're extremely fortunate because EI in our area is pretty fast moving and simple to navigate so it's really only been about a month since I made the initial call. She was evaluated a couple weeks ago by an amazing couple (a speech pathologist and speech pathologist assistant) whom Sabrina immediately responded to and vice versa. Yesterday I met with her case worker and went over the results.

Dude, I knew she was behind but they've got her expressive communication at a 9-12 month level! I've read the evaluation and it is accurate but it was surprising. I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable about where she should be development-wise and I didn't think she was that far behind. But the good news is her receptive language is awesome, she scores above her age level on that. We knew she understood everything. Which is why I had to stop watching the Real Housewives around here because there is something clearly wrong with that Danielle chick, you know?

The other good news is she had a great connection with her therapist, and her therapist feels she will respond well and quickly to therapy. Hopefully she'll be able to communicate well enough to not make her an outcast by the time she starts pre-school. I just want her to be happy. She's such a happy, easy going little love bug and I don't want anything like this hurdle to bring her down.

4 comments:

Faith, the Authoress said...

She is super cute. And will be even cuter when she is able to start communicating, happy to hear that she'll be responding quickly to therapy!

tvchiq :) said...

first of all--love the petting zoo pic..she's so cute...

second of all, altho I don't usually write comments, I have been reading your blog for a while and I see how committed you are to your daughter and her progress--so I'm sure she'll be kicking a** in no time...if she's anything like you seem to be...

good luck with everything.. :)

sara said...

She has the most beautiful eyes! And I totally want to hear about how the goat went up your dress. So spill the beans :-) Awesome about her liking the therapist. I'm sure she's going to be talking up a storm in no time. I'm still waiting for Brynn's language explosion as well...but trying to give it time. Isn't it funny how our worries change over time? You have me thinking if Brynn might be a bit behind in the language department. But I just know Sabrina is going to knock down any hurdle - she might be wanting to do some guest entries on your blog before you know it! ((hugs))

Unknown said...

I wanna know who's responsible for that sheep's haircut. It's like a sheep mohawk back there :)

Sabrina had nothing to do with that right?